VACCINATION...

Officials who asked not to be named said the situation is now so serious that in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where the health minister and a bevy of top officials launched the mammoth vaccination drive on Saturday, did 55 vaccinations on Tuesday, a day after doing only 8.

Staff in other hospitals across Delhi now fear that vials of vaccine may go to waste if they don’t have 10 people to administer doses to within four hours of opening a vial.

“If doctors and nurses are declining to take vaccines, it is upsetting. The government appeals to you – please come don’t be reluctant. Because we don’t know how the pandemic will shape up in the coming days,” said VK Paul, Niti Aayog member (health).

Paul and Bhushan said that three days of vaccinations have shown that adverse reactions were lower than what has been seen globally, and the adverse effect following immunisation (AEFI) monitoring mechanism was robust enough to catch any problems. Bhushan said the number of mild AEFIS – reactions such as pain, nausea, mild fever – were reported in 0.18% of people vaccinated till Monday night. Severe AEFIS, which required hospitalisations, accounted for 0.002% of the immunisations.

“Look at the data, look at the AEFI surveillance system we have put in place. This system has been built over two-and-ahalf decades. We should have faith on such a system. If something serious comes up, we will respond to it. But if there isn’t, why are we afraid? Vaccine hesitancy among health workers should end,” Paul said.

Paul added that by India’s capacity and speed, health care workers in the country can be vaccinated “in a matter of not even months, but days”, and this, he said, could allow all health care services to be opened up.

“We are very fortunate that we are able to begin vaccinations when our pandemic is under control. In this period, the most we can vaccinate, we must. We will reach vaccine-induced herd immunity soon,” he said.

His appeal was reiterated by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director Balram Bhargava. “As we approach half a million vaccinations, it’s very clear both vaccines are very safe. There are three things we must remember about Covid vaccines: they do not cause Covid-19, they prevent Covid-19 infections, and they prevent Covid-19 deaths. The time to take a vaccine is now, when we can break the chain of transmission,” he said.

Tuesday’s 54% vaccination rate was only marginally better than the 50% seen till Monday. According to preliminary figures released by the Union health ministry late in the evening, there were 3,800 sessions across the country throughout the day and roughly 180,000 vaccinations were done.

AIIMS director Randeep Guleria told HT in an interview on Monday that some of the hesitancy has been fuelled by misconceptions about vaccines in general and due to misplaced concerns about safety of the two vaccines being used in India in particular. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that one of the vaccines, Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech, is yet to draw any significant clues from Phase 3 trials.

The other factor hampering the colossal exercise has been glitches in the digital tool to identify and track recipients. The government moved to address problems with the CO-WIN mobile application after complaints from states. The app identifies 100 recipients for a particular session and triggers automatic SMS alerts. But as selected recipients failed to turn up, vaccinators discovered a flaw in the design that would not allow them to call in others instead – this problem was rectified on Tuesday.

“We have made a provision in the app to also accommodate beneficiaries scheduled to take the jab on other dates. Earlier, the software wasn’t designed to accept beneficiaries outside the day’s list,” said Dr RS Sharma, chairman, empowered group on Covid-19 vaccination.

The application is particularly crucial because India has created a matrix of recipients based on their vulnerability to the disease and their likelihood of catching the virus. First among the priority groups are health workers, who will be followed by frontline essential workers like police and cleaning staff, and ultimately people above 50 and those younger but with associated comorbid conditions. #Deshpremdivas across the country by people from all religions, caste & creed as he was the #Liberatorofindia & their own leader. Govt sponsorship is not required. However it’s time the GOI officially announce! @narendramodi @Pmoindia,” he tweeted.

BJP state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar defended the Union government’s move. “The Centre named the day Parakram Diwas because Netaji is a symbol of valour and patriotism for the entire nation,” he told the media.

“Instead of just celebrating Bose’s birthday, the Centre should declare its stand on the report of the Justice Manoj Mukherjee Commission that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had set up to probe Bose’s mysterious disappearance. The commission concluded that he did not die in the plane crash in 1945, but the UPA government did not accept it. The Centre should also declare what happened to the manuscript of the research on the Indian National Army (INA) that historian Pratul Chandra Gupta was asked to carry out by the Centre in 1956. The manuscript simply disappeared,” political commentator and columnist Suvashis Maitra told HT, referring to the mystery surrounding Bose’s death.

Late last year, the Centre appointed a high-level committee headed by home minister Amit Shah to celebrate Bose’s 125th birth anniversary. Chief minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee, her predecessor and CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and BJP’S Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh, among others, are in the panel.

“Nobody from the Forward Bloc has been included in the committee. We will not be a part of it even if we are invited now,” party leader Chatterjee said.

At his press conference in the Capital, Patel said different ministries will roll out programmes throughout the year to celebrate Bose. “Padyatra and cycle rallies will be organised in the honour of the freedom fighter,” he said. He added that PM Modi will also felicitate prominent members of INA, which Bose led to fight the British rule, in Kolkata on Saturday. “Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja” — the regimental quick march of INA — will be included in the Beating Retreat ceremony, he said.

Besides, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan will participate in a programme in Odisha’s Cuttack, where Bose was born in 1897.

(with agency inputs)

latest policy will lead to the platform collecting “vast amount of highly invasive and granular metadata from their (users’) chats with business accounts and share it with other Facebook companies”. “With this, any meaningful distinction between Whatsapp and Facebook companies will cease to exist. Given the huge user base of Whatsapp and Facebook in India, the consolidation of this sensitive information also exposes a very large segment of Indian citizens to greater security risks and vulnerabilities creating a honeypot of information,” said the person.

The letter added that the “integration of data between Whatsapp and other Facebook companies” denies the user the choice to opt out of the policy.

“This ‘all or nothing’ approach takes away any meaningful choice from Indian users. This approach leverages the social significance of Whatsapp to force users into a bargain, which may infringe on their interests in relation to informational privacy and information security. It is expected that Facebook will value the principles of privacy and consent as laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in its judgment of Justice (Retd.) K.S. Puttaswamy vs. Union of India (2017),” the person quoted above added. The government said that the Personal Data Protection Bill is being discussed by a joint committee of the Parliament and making “a momentous change for its Indian users at this time puts the cart before the horse.”

The parliamentary panel on information technology has also summoned Facebook officials in the wake of privacy concerns about Whatsapp, Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.

The ministry has also “raised strong objections against the differential treatment by Whatsapp to its users in India and in the European Union”. It has flagged the “differential and discriminatory treatment of Indian and European users is attracting serious criticism and shows lack of respect for the rights and interests of Indian citizens, who form one of the largest user bases for Whatsapp”. It added that such treatment is “prejudicial to the interests of Indian users...” Apar Gupta, trustee of the Internet Freedom Foundation, said: “The government’s decision is a step towards demanding accountability, which is a positive move. It, however, needs to be done in a transparent manner. We don’t know under which law this notice has been issued. That is concerning as in the past action has been taken pursuant to such notices.”